You will learn how to analyze a business and build practical scenarios using Excel and AI tools. You will gain hands-on business analysis experience integrating core business concepts across various disciplines. You will have a framework for introductory business analysis and a toolkit to implement it with Excel and the latest AI tools. Learning to translate your thoughts to spreadsheets helps you think clearly, sequentially, and logically. Employers highly value these skills and will help you with your internships.
The course assumes no prior business or Excel background. You will learn how to use the latest AI tools to access advanced Excel functions despite having zero background.
Course code: MULT-UB 55
Fall 2026
Undergrad concentrations:
I use my materials. Therefore, no textbook is required, and you need not purchase anything.
Requiring attendance is necessary for several reasons. First, you incorrectly assume you can catch up on a missed class by watching a recording (if available). Videos do not engage your brain as much as a live class. Second, less than 20% of you watch the recording (if available). You are then lost in class, which provides the wrong signals to me as an instructor. Third, your absence hurts class discussions. Fourth, you miss out on feedback if you do not work through the questions I pose in class. Fifth, I lose the feedback since there are fewer questions.
The policy below will be in effect only after the add/drop period.
Without mandatory attendance, attendance is often below 50%. Therefore, though I dislike doing this, I penalize absences. If you anticipate being absent for good reasons, please email me well in advance. Please enter "Excused" on the attendance sheet described below to avoid the penalty if I approve. If you miss a class due to emergencies and cannot tell me in advance, do not panic. Take care of the emergency first, and then email me. I will permit you to change the "Absent" to "Excused." But if you miss a class without a valid reason, there is a penalty, as stated below.
For sections meeting in 150-190 minute sessions, you will lose one grade (A to A-, A- to B+, B+ to B, B to B-, and so on) for EVERY missed session unless you were explicitly excused via email. Thus, if you miss two class sessions, you will lose two grades, and so on.
For sections meeting in 75-80 minute sessions, you will lose one grade (A to A-, A- to B+, B+ to B, B to B-, and so on) for EVERY TWO missed sessions unless you were explicitly excused via email. Thus, if you miss four class sessions, you will lose two grades, and so on.
Please sit in the same seat in every class and display your name tags. For Zoom classes, you must keep your video on AT ALL TIMES. You must also have a good working headset or mic, as it is extremely rude to be inaudible and force me to ask you to repeat yourself. After entering the class, please mark yourself present in the first 20 minutes on the OneDrive sheet (link posted on Brightspace). You will be marked absent if you are more than 20 minutes late unless it is because of factors beyond your control (traffic, subway, or interviews running late). You will also be marked absent if you leave the class early unless you have my permission or get it afterward. You will get an F in the course if you are caught cheating on the attendance sheet.
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We will simulate these scenarios in Excel with the assistance of AI tools.
Why do nonprofit organizations perform some key economic activities? Why are nonprofit organizations treated differently when it comes to income, sales, and property taxes? Why does the private sector fail to provide public goods?
Build a simple Excel example showing how the financial statements of these organizations differ and how the three types of taxes affect their cash flows.
Why did the concept of limited liability emerge? How did it help create modern large corporations?
We will build scenarios showing how limited liability affects investors' losses.
How do the tax rules interact with the legal form of business entities such as LLCs, partnerships, and corporations?
We will build a simple example of single versus double taxation.
How do shareholders vote? What does a board of directors do? What do executive officers do?
What is the difference between public and private corporations? Why are public corporations audited? Who regulates public corporations?
[Overview, not a detailed accounting treatment]
What is an income statement? How does it help us analyze the three key metrics of size, growth, and margins? How do revenues differ from receipts? How do expenses differ from payments?
Simple examples of how income flows differ from cash flows. Common-size income statement. Computation of compounded annual sales growth and margins.
What is a balance sheet? What events are and are not captured on the balance sheet? What are assets, liabilities, and equity?
Preparing a common-size balance sheet using total assets as well as total sales in the denominator.
How are cash flows classified? Why is the cash flow classification useful?
Deriving cash flows from income statements and changes in the balance sheet.
[Overview, not a detailed modeling treatment]
Potential addressable market (PAM), Total addressable market (TAM), Serviceable addressable market (SAM), target market (TM), serviceable obtainable market (SOM), current market share (MS), pricing, and growth across these metrics.
Building a PAM-TAM-SAM-TM-SOM-MS waterfall. Modeling how changes in price and quantity affect total sales.
Fixed versus variable costs, contribution margin, average versus marginal costs, and breakeven analysis
Simulating operating leverage via scenarios. Plotting breakeven points.
Timing differences between cash receipts and revenues: Receivables and deferred revenues
Simulating receivables and deferred revenues
Timing differences between cash payments and expenses: Prepayments and payables
Simulating prepayments and payables
[Overview, not a detailed marketing treatment]
How do businesses identify the target customer group and position their products for success? Why is positioning critical?
How do businesses pick product attributes, set prices, distribute their products, and promote them?
How do businesses navigate the two strategic choices of differentiation and cost leadership?
Analyzing margins and simulating how pricing affects margins.
How do companies sustain superior products and services?
How does branding address the problem of adverse selection? What is signaling? How are brands created? Which type of products do brands matter the most for?
Computing the ROI on brand spending.
What gives rise to network effects? How do network effects lead to market dominance?
Simulating network effects
What factors give rise to switching costs?
Simulating switching costs
How does control of scarce resources lead to monopolistic behavior?
Understanding how monopolistic pricing differs from competitive pricing
What are the benefits of economies of scale? Which types of industries benefit from economies of scale?
Simulating economies of scale
What are the benefits of economies of scope? Which types of industries benefit from economies of scope?
Simulating synergies, bundling, and economies of scope
How do companies sustain the corporate culture of efficient production?
Simulating the experience curve
What types of national and legal factors give rise to access to cheaper resources?
How does regulatory protection lead to lower costs or higher prices?
[Overview, not a detailed management and economics treatment]
How do companies identify promising employees and convince them to join? How do start-ups address this challenge?
Why is delegation critical to scaling a company?
Delegation creates the need to monitor and measure performance. What kind of performance measurement systems do companies use?
Self-interested behavior under asymmetric information leads to problems of adverse selection and moral hazard. How do companies use incentive pay to address these issues?
Simulating the adverse selection and the market for lemons problem.
Simulating job market signaling
Simulating moral hazard with risk aversion
How are performance measurement and reward systems organized to encourage cooperation within a business entity?
Simulating the free rider problem, positive externalities, and negative externalities.
Simple versus compound interest
We will spend considerable time learning how to compute present value, future value, internal rate of return, and periodic payments.
Loan amortization, splitting payments between interest and principal repayments. A simple introduction to credit cards, leases, and mortgages.
We will spend considerable time building loan amortization tables.
This topic will be taught via in-class market simulations rather than traditional theory.
A classroom simulation of double auction markets and their crucial role in allocating resources efficiently. Showing students how markets converge to theoretical outcomes despite limited individual rationality.
Understanding other auction formats, such as English, sealed-bid, and Dutch auctions. Demonstrating the winner's curse in common-value auctions.